MiserAbility
by Evergreen
Summary: A cold sweat popped out of her collar after leaving a second voicemail for Peter. Where were they? She was about to call Astrid when she saw Peter waiting in the lobby of her building, smile on his face, holding a cup of coffee. Chapter 19 now up!
1. Chapter 1

**MiserAbility: Tag to "Ability"**

By Evergreen

Peter watched in wonder as the lights started blinking out under Olivia's intense stare. He had instantly regretted telling her that he thought she was crazy and that he wasn't going to die with her. _Hell, it was always a good day to die, right?_ He had turned around and come back into the room. He stood a good ten feet behind her trying not to break her concentration. She had practically crumpled under the intensity of her mental feat and looked back at Peter when it was done and they were safe.

Relief had flooded his brain and euphoria at not having died. "How about a drink, or five?" He had asked lightly. Of course, she refused, work always came first. He did really feel the need to blur the edges of the anxiety that still coursed through him. He also really wanted to continue reading the manifesto, it had a strange hold on him. Very readable and if he let himself, he could really sink into the _idea _of it. His brain was literally buzzing when he got back to the lab to pick up Walter. He was feeling good enough to actually bring Walter with him to the bar. He really didn't want to drink alone. He wouldn't have minded if Olivia had joined him, but beggars can't be choosers.

By the time he arrived at the lab, it was late and the campus was quiet and dark. He walked slowly through the thin layer of snow that was just beginning to coat the sidewalks. He could actually feel the quiet, the stillness in the air. It wasn't often you would feel that in Boston, or anywhere with any civilization anyway. His thoughts drifted again to the list of tests that were included in the box that Olivia had brought back from the amusement park. He wanted to look at those a little more closely, especially before Olivia would touch any of them. He pushed open the door to the lab. There was only one light on and Walter sat under it, staring at an old typewriter. The cow mooed lightly in the corner. "Ready to go, Walter?"

"Peter?" He sounded lost.

"Yes, Walter? It's me. Are you ready to go home?"

"Yes, yes. Can we stop and get my coffee cake, now?"

"Sure, Walter. Let's stop and get coffee cake." He strode out of the office behind Walter. The desk lamp clicked off exactly fourteen seconds after the door closed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2:**

Olivia had collapsed into her bed and fell into a deep sleep, not moving until her alarm roused her at 6:00 am. Her mind traveled back to what had transpired the previous night and was stunned anew. Had she really done that or was it all an elaborate trick? The only one who may be able to help her was gone and a huge hole left in the side of the hospital as the only souvenir. A small smile crept over her face when she remembered that Peter had come back for her. She didn't know if it was stupidity or loyalty, but he did. And those tests. They may be the key to understanding the master plan of this…cult? She would definitely need the assistance of the Bishops to keep moving this investigation forward. But first, coffee.

Peter stirred from his slumber to the sounds of Walter singing. He couldn't quite make out what, but it was annoying enough to keep him from falling back unconscious. He had gotten Walter from the lab last night and they had stopped in at a local diner to get some coffee and coffee cake for Walter. Peter couldn't quite get over the fact the Walter seemed to be looking at everything almost as if he had never seen it before. But sometimes, when Peter caught him under the right circumstances, Walter would blurt out the most brilliant and sometimes embarrassing things. Peter decided to wrap his pillow around his ears and hoped it would drown out the strains of that unintelligible song. His mind wandered to of all people_, Olivia_. He imagined her shuffling her feet away from her kitchen, coffee cup steaming in her hands, glasses on, her hair still a little mussed from sleeping, carrying a folder she would pore over when she sat down in the living room on the couch. As if he were reading over her shoulder, he glanced down at the contents of the folder and saw his own name. In shock, he snapped open his eyes and sat up.

The three bulbs in the bathroom light fixture snapped out as Walter was washing is face. "Hmm." He shook the water off his hands and wiped them and his face on a scratchy white towel.

"Peter?" Walter called out as the phone began ringing.

"Hello?...Okay. We'll meet you over at the lab." Walter heard the click on the phone being placed back on its cradle. Three seconds later, Peter knocked on the bathroom door. "Walter? You almost done? That was Olivia. There's been another…event."

"Yes, Peter. I am done." He pushed open the door to see his son standing there, slight growth of beard and bags under his eyes. "You really should get more sleep, you look terrible. Maybe I could make you a sleeping pill." Walter pushed past him to get out of the small room.

"No, thank you, Walter. I sleep just fine." He walked into the bathroom and flipped the switch up and down a few times with no result. "What the hell?" Peter scrubbed his face with his hands in frustration.

"Yes, I think a sleeping pill would do you wonders." Walter wandered back into the main room of the hotel suite and began putting on his shirt.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3:**

Olivia was dressed in all grey, covered in a black long coat, shivering against the cold wind that blew through the courtyard where they all stood. Her FBI team swarmed over the site all in practiced distance from the victim who lay in the snow. The man's skin and clothing shone with what looked like an inch of ice. Where he had fell, his arm and half his face seemed to end in piles of broken glass. It was late afternoon and the sun had already begun its descent into the horizon.

"Wow, a man-sicle, huh?" Peter attempted a lame joke to break the tension. Olivia looked up at him with the slightest hint of amusement at the corner of her mouth, which never quite made it up to her eyes.

"According to eyewitnesses, this man was just walking down the path, coffee and newspaper in hand, when he just froze over. When he fell over, his right hand and head just shattered at impact." Olivia stopped for a moment, considering her next words. "Walter, have you seen anything like this before?"

"Well, perhaps. Can we have him brought to the lab? I will need some samples." Walter's breath was misting in short bursts in front of his mouth as he spoke, betraying his level of excitement.

Peter helped to wrestle the half-broken, half-frozen man off the gurney and onto the exam table in the lab. The man's body was rapidly melting, leaving large puddles of water on the floor around the table. Walter had on his eye loop and was looking intently at the man's eye that had remained intact. "Astral? Could I have sample vial, please?" He looked up and his eye through the loop blinked largely at her. Astrid tried hard to restrain a giggle. She shook her head and she placed the vial in his waiting hand. She had stopped correcting him weeks ago. At least this time it was pretty close.

"Walter? Where do you want this?…" Peter carried a piece of equipment to monitor the man's body temperature and went to place it down on a bench when the there was a loud pop. All the lights and equipment in the lab simultaneously went out. The room was instantly dark. "For crying out loud…" Peter placed the temperature gauge on what he hope was a bench and turned to find the fuse box. His right foot slipped on a patch of melted man and he frantically made a grab for something to stop his fall. His left hand wrapped around something and he pulled at it, his right hand clutched the gurney. He saw a bright light and then…nothing.

Olivia pulled open the door to the lab, puzzled by the apparent gloom within. Her eyes were trapped by the sight of Peter's face been lit by small arcs of electricity and then darkness.

"Peter!"


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4:**

Peter's awareness came back to him in fits and starts. He was aware of some yelling, bright flashes of light, and a weird sensation that he was vibrating.

He was in a park. _He felt satisfied. _He had his coffee, his newspaper, and was heading to work._ There was a game on that night and he had put a little money on the home team. Not enough to hurt if he lost it, but enough to blow on drinks with his friends if he won. It was strange that the coffee guy gave him a $2 bill to break his five, but hell, he would save that $2 bill. You don't run across those every day. _He jammed the bill into his wallet._ It might be worth something someday… _He was aware that he was cold, _really_ cold._ Damn, was he even wearing a coat? _He glanced at the sun in confusion._ Wasn't it supposed to be a little warmer today? _A deep chill ran through him and he dropped his coffee, his newspaper forgotten.

"Peter? Can you hear me?" Walter asked loudly, tension tipped his every word. A low moan came out of his son's mouth. Walter's eyes flicked up to meet Olivia and Astrid's in relief. Peter's eyes blinked rapidly as he tried to make sense of what had just happened.

"Holy hell." Peter struggled to sit upright from his position on the floor. "My head hurts like a bitch." He leaned his head into his hand. "What happened?" He tried to stand up but tilted to the side and slid back onto his backside. "Okay, I'll just stay right here then."

"You tripped and caught yourself on a lamp, completing the circuit. I think you were electrocuted. How do you feel?" Walter's face loomed close into Peter's field of vision as the power came back on and relit the room.

Peter attempted to get vertical again and was somewhat successful with Olivia's assistance. He grinned at her in appreciation. "I feel like I can glow in the dark. Like I've been barbequed. Like.." He glanced over at the gurney and stopped speaking for a moment. "How did he get here? What happened to him? Why is it so cold in here?" Peter's teeth started to chatter as he wrapped his arms around his body in an effort to gather some heat.

"Astro, can you get Peter a blanket? He's going into shock." Walter said matter-of-factly as he watched Olivia put her arms around him in an effort to lend him some warmth. Peter sat down hard on a desk chair, still chattering away. Olivia wrapped him in two blankets that Astrid had provided. His lips were starting to turn blue and his skin was losing all of its color.

"So c-c-cold…Am I w-w-wearing a coat? I thought it was supposed to be warmer t-t-today." His eyes looked up towards the ceiling. "Where's my coffee? I put the money in my wallet. You don't see a $2 bill every day, you know." He seemed to be staring off into the room. Olivia's eyes widened at the mention of the money, but she continued to hold him tight.

"Astrid, please prepare a warm saline drip." He turned back to his son. "Peter, can you hear me?"

"Yes, Walter, I can hear you." He looked back at his father before his eyes rolled up into his head and he lost consciousness.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5:**

**A/N: Thanks to all for your reviews and suggestions. Per request, this chapter is a little longer. Enjoy and please continue to share your thoughts!**

Olivia sat on an uncomfortable metal lab stool next to Peter, who lay unconscious on a gurney in the lab. They had turned the temperature up in the lab by several degrees to help warm Peter up. He was under several layers of warming blankets, had a warm saline drip attached to his arm, and Walter was considering other options to keep Peter's core temperature up. Walter tsked under his breath as he pulled the digital thermometer out of Peter's ear for the tenth time. "96.8 degrees, too cold. He shouldn't be getting colder." Olivia smiled weakly at Walter as he stopped talking and appeared to be thinking.

"Walter? What is it? Shouldn't we take him to a hospital?" Olivia started to stand as Walter began to pace. She continued to hold Peter's cold hand, reminding her a little bit of the dead man on the next table.

"No hospital. They won't be able to help him. Only I can. He's freezing to death, we've only been able to stay the process- not stop or reverse it. That gentleman over there," he paused to point to the dead man, "is the unfortunate outcome of this process. I think their minds touched for a moment when Peter was electrocuted. Remember when we were successful before? When we had to provide the location to the gentleman in Germany?"

"You mean with Mr. Jones?"

"Yes, of course. What else would I mean?" His response was instant and cutting. His face softened as he looked up at her. "Peter seems to have made a connection, if you will, to that man over there. With the addition of electricity, it should have been easy. Peter's done it many times before. Why, when he was 12, we hooked him up to…"

Peter's moaning stopped Walter's dialogue. "What did you do to me now, Walter?" Peter's scratchy mumble was barely audible.

"Peter! How do you feel?" Walter's face lit up.

"Like I've been run over with a truck, you?" The color seemed to have returned to Peter's face. Olivia let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Peter tried to swat away Astrid as she was attempting to put the digital thermometer in his ear again. Peter leaned hard on Olivia as he struggled to raise himself to a semi-upright position. He swung his feet over the side of the gurney and flashed a quick smile at Olivia. "I'm okay, okay. Stop fussing. Let me down." Peter stood up gingerly and straightened slowly as if expecting something to prevent him. Astrid took the opportunity to take his temperature again.

"98.6. Perfect." Astrid announced.

"Good, good. Peter, how do you feel?"

"I'm fine now, Walter. Don't even feel bad anymore. Right as rain." He stumbled slightly as he walked around the lab. He waved off Olivia as she started after him. "Anyone have anything to eat? I'm starving. Oh, and coffee would be great, too."

Olivia looked at Walter to gauge his reaction to Peter's sudden restoration to health. Walter's brow was furrowed as he went back to his desk and began scribbling in a notebook. She felt as if she had missed something. She felt as if she were always two steps behind the brilliant and slightly mad scientist. "Walter?"

"Oh, Olivia. I didn't see you there. Is there something I can do for you?" It was as if all recognition of the last few hours was gone.

Peter strode into the lab from the hallway bearing a drink carrier with several coffees and a brown bag. "Breakfast, anyone?" He smiled when he saw Olivia. Olivia blinked and stared at Peter in confusion. She scanned the lab. The dead frozen man was gone and Astrid was busy with something on the computer. Peter was in the lab only moments before.

"Did I miss something? Where's the frozen man?" She couldn't believe that everything had changed in the blink of an eye.

"What are you talking about, my dear?" Walter was busy chewing on a bagel and gave her a slightly blank look.

"Uh, nothing, I guess." She turned and grabbed Peter by the arm. "Peter," she hissed into his ear, "meet me in the office." She walked quickly into the side office and closed the door. Peter put his coffee down and followed her.

"Uh, Olivia? Everything okay?" He casually leaned back against the edge of the desk as he watched her pacing. He could tell something was up.

"Not really." She stopped pacing and stood in front of him and continued in a whisper. "I think I'm going nuts, here. I would've sworn that you were just coming out of a coma after being electrocuted and touching a dead, frozen man, whom we had collected earlier this morning. Did any of that actually happen?" She shared the rest of her experience with him as he stared at her in disbelief.

"Weirder things have happened, especially around here and with Walter involved. You said that I recovered though, right? That's good at least." A bead of sweat rolled down the side of his head, the only sign of his anxiety in response to her story. He wiped it away quickly and tried to think of a scientific explanation. He ignored the sudden roiling in his stomach. Something about her story was niggling the edge of his mind, like he had a word on the tip of his tongue but couldn't quite recall it. He let it go, chalked it up to the power of suggestion and his strong desire to wipe the look of confusion from Olivia's face.

"You think I'm crazy. You think I made this up. Maybe all the time in the tank, stress from this case, maybe I've finally cracked." She started to gather herself together again. He could see her closing up her boundaries, eager to look at things through the lenses of logic again.

"No, I don't think you're crazy, but I just don't have an explanation for what you think happened…yet." The tension in her shoulders seemed to ease a little bit after Peter actually seemed to be hopeful that they would figure this out.

"Don't tell Walter." Olivia said under her breath.

"We…" Peter started. He of all people may be able to shed some light on this…phenomenon.

"Please, don't." She said a little louder and left the room. Peter continued leaning against the desk a little longer hoping that something would come to him. He blew out a frustrated sigh and wandered back into the lab, hoping to hell what Olivia had just shared wasn't a portent for things to come. Olivia had grabbed her things and left Peter to think. Maybe he would go for a walk in the park to clear his head. He grabbed his coffee on the way out.

"Back soon. Don't wait up." He was already down the hall by the time Walter looked up from his notes.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: **

**A/N: Sorry for the wait, folks. I needed some new Fringe to regain my muse (that kid was creepy). I just noticed that I seem to have an obsession with coffee. That's true! Thanks to all!**

A chill was in the air as he walked through campus, avoiding students without even thinking. It was amazing how quickly he had acclimated to the campus life. He had spent a lot of time at MIT, most of it wasn't bad. Hell, he even enjoyed some of it. All these people scurrying around with no clue of what was around them. Wrapped in cocoons of ignorance, where he had been only a few short years ago. Before he knew about what Walter was really about and what was possible. He absently blew on his coffee after he had burned his tongue for the third time, although with a lid, it was of little use.

Olivia's story had admittedly thrown him and he was actually shocked at the intense urge he had to share it immediately with Walter. That was new. With the new developments with Mr. Jones and the box of tests, he thought that maybe it was related. Maybe she was able to do more than just shut off some lights. He didn't realize how far he had walked until he looked up again and practically plowed into a guy who was blowing on his own coffee, looking at the ground, deep in thought.

Peter gently laid his hand on the man's shoulder to stop the stranger's forward progression and the man's eyes shot up and looked into Peter's. A second ticked by. "Uh, sorry. I guess I wasn't looking where I was going." He glanced at his watch. "Oh crap, I'm going to be late. No time to grab a paper. Uh, sorry again." He walked away quickly towards the south. The whole encounter had passed so quickly that Peter hadn't even had the chance to respond. He felt a heavy pressure in his forehead and he covered his eyes with his free hand. Then, as quickly as it had come on, the pain passed. He shook his head and threw his now cold coffee into the nearest trash can. His fingers were tingling. He rubbed them together and decided it might be best to return to the lab.

Olivia's head was buzzing with all the possibilities of what she had experienced in the lab. It could just be that she was cracking up, a product of all the crazy stuff that was tied up with the Pattern. She doubted that, though, that explanation actually seemed too pedestrian to be right. She chuckled to herself on that. When did she become so accepting of all things weird and impossible? As soon as she walked into the office, Charlie came up to her and looked at her with concern in his eyes. "Olivia? Are you okay?"

"Yes, Charlie, I'm fine. Why do you ask?" Olivia tried to add some energy in her response, although she felt as if she hadn't slept in two days.

"I've been trying to reach you on your cell, but it never picked up. Were you out of range?"

"I don't think so. I was just at the lab with the Bishops." She pulled out her phone. Five bars. "No, it seems okay now. Maybe it was a problem with the tower or something. Why, is there something going on?"

"Broyles was looking for you. He said to come by when you got in." He nodded, smiled at her and went back to his desk.

"Okay." She pulled out her phone again and studied it. Everything looked okay. She walked over to Broyles office and was about to knock. He was on the phone, an intense look on his face. Nina Sharp's face flashed into her mind. Broyles slammed down the receiver as Olivia knocked and opened the door. "Nina giving you trouble again?"

"Yes." A beat. "How did you know it was her?" Broyles said flatly, slightly angling his head.

"She's the only one who can get rise out of you, sir." Olivia smiled slightly. "Did you want to see me?"

"Yes, we have another…situation. A man was found on Second St., apparently on his way to work. He was frozen solid."

Olivia stopped breathing for a second. She tried not to show any response. "Is there a team assembled?"

"They're on their way. Let's go. Call the Bishops to meet us."

Olivia called Peter to tell them where to meet but declined to mention the situation. She was afraid to read into it too much. She hoped that more objective heads would prevail. She was looking at the body when the Bishops arrived. Peter was speaking with Walter, not really looking where they were going. Peter's eyes connected with the body and he dropped his keys. "Holy hell."

"Peter?" Walter asked, while attempting to get closer to the remains.

"I know this man." Peter's voice was quiet.

Olivia swallowed. S_o do I_.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: (A/N: Short one. Faster update, though. Enjoy!!)**

As Olivia knew he would, Walter requested the body be taken to the lab for study. She tried to shake the feeling of dread and déjà vu that had descended over her. Peter's face had actually gone pale after he saw the body and he had to sit down. The FBI team had not taken notice of his behavior as someone inevitably got sick at the sight of a body. Olivia had noticed. She had started towards him and he waved her away. She watched him out of the corner of her eye as the EMT's loaded the body into the ambulance. Charlie had offered to take Walter back to the lab and help supervise the unloading.

Olivia walked up to Peter, who was now standing next to a bench and was leaning heavily onto it. "Peter, are you okay?"

"If by okay you mean scared shitless, then, yes, I'm okay. You?" His snarky response was a good sign that he was returning to himself.

Olivia nodded in response. "Do you want to talk about it?" She directed him to sit back down on the bench. "What happened?"

"Well, after we talked, I was actually kind of freaked out. I was trying to come up with anything that would make sense. I went for a walk in the park to help clear my head. I bumped into this guy on his way to work. He told me that he was late for work and now didn't have time to get a paper. He scurried off." He stopped. "I should have stopped him. Followed him, something."

"What could you possibly have done? How would you have known?" She placed a hand on his shoulder. Peter's face contorted into a grimace of pain. She pulled her hand back sharply. "What's wrong?"

"It's okay." The creases in his forehead relaxed. "I'm fine now. That's the second time I thought I was getting a migraine and it passed." He smiled at her, a little too brightly. Wetness in his eyes reflected in the waning sunlight.

"Do you get migraines a lot?" She kept her hands folded in her lap, now afraid to touch him again.

"Not much anymore. I used to get them a lot when I was a kid. Walter would usually give me something for it and have me rest for a few hours. Usually did the trick." He absently rubbed his forehead in remembrance of the pain. "It was the same guy, wasn't it?" It wasn't really a question, but a confirmation.

"Yeah." She answered quietly, not sure what to say next. Peter stayed silent as well.

Olivia's phone started ringing. The both of them jumped and looked at each other sheepishly. Olivia stood up and took several steps away from Peter. "Dunham."

"Olivia, it's Astrid. I think you should get over here. We have the body. I think there is something you'll want to see." Olivia could hear Walter speaking loudly in the background, but she couldn't make out what he was saying.

"We'll be right there." Olivia slammed her phone shut and slipped it back into her pocket. "C'mon, Peter. We have to go back. I think your father's found something."

"Yay, I can hardly contain my excitement."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: **

**A/N: Thanks for all of the reviews and to those who are tracking the story's progress. It keeps me going. Now onto to more Peter angst and Olivia introspection!**

On the way back to the lab, both Peter and Olivia were too caught up in their own thoughts to speak out loud. As they pulled into the campus parking lot, Peter turned to Olivia. "We'll have to tell him now. This is now beyond just weird. That man is _dead. _And as you know, he wasn't the first_._"

"I know." She said quietly. "I was just hoping that I'd imagined all this and I would wake up soon." Her feeble attempt at a joke fell flat. He just nodded, shoved his hands in his pockets and strode to the building's double doors.

Olivia had to jog to catch up with him. "Peter, wait. Have you ever heard of _cortexiphan_?" He stopped in his tracks, but didn't turn around.

"How do you know about that?" His face was hard, unreadable.

"I may have been a test subject when I was a kid." She told him lightly, trying to determine how he would react. If it were possible, his face became even more devoid of emotion.

"Walter?" He ground out. Rage now seemed to be simmering just under his carefully schooled exterior.

"No, his colleague, William Bell, ran some clinical trials at the Air Force base where my father was stationed in Florida. I met with Nina Sharp last week and she told me about it. She said there were no known effects seen in the subjects who had received the drug."

"_Yet_. Obviously, that's changing."

"Peter, what do you know about these trials?"

"Nothing much. That book, the manifesto, makes mention of a treatment that helps to open the subjects to all experiences, whatever the hell that means. If William Bell and my father were involved, you can be sure that there was an effect. We may now just be starting to see what that is." His face became stony again, his eyes went far away.

Olivia followed him into the lab, keeping her swirling thoughts to herself.

"Peter?" Walter's voice called after him as Peter walked right past him and into the office, closing the door with a quiet click.

"Uh, Walter? I would leave him alone for awhile. He has a lot on his mind." Olivia walked toward him, with a practiced smile that seemed to appease the scientist.

"Okay. Do you think that I could put a request in for a leather couch? I really love to lay on them and think. They smell so good. Oh, do you think our resident bovine would take offense? Oh, maybe we should get one of those microfiber ones, where no stains can stick…" Walter continued his diatribe as Olivia's thoughts drifted back to Peter's strange behavior. He seemed more…_invested_ in this than the other results of the Pattern. She wondered if it was because, as it seemed to happen more and more often, his father was involved.

Peter had taken the time during his current self-imposed exile from the rest of the lab to conduct some research of his own. The manifesto contained some stereochemical drawings of the main component of _cortexiphan_- a very complex arrangement of many unusual molecules, unlike anything he had ever seen before. Next to it was another compound, similar in composition, but opposite in its orientation. These compounds' structures were mirror images of each other, called enantiomers. As he knew from his biochemistry class, even this small change could have a catastrophic effect on its function. This second compound was labeled _collosuphan_, which he guessed was named after the _corpus collusum_, the part of the brain that effectively linked the two hemispheres together and allowed them to work together. The book described the relationship between these two compounds as having the ability to encourage more interconnection between neurons in the brain and allowing the brain to come to a higher potential. _Collosuphan_ was also part of clinical trials, but had been stopped due to the high proportion of test subjects showing varying amounts of brain damage. He rubbed his forehead absently as he turned the page.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9:**

He must have fallen asleep because the next thing he was aware of was his father's face looming in front of his eyes. "Peter? Are you okay?" His father seemed to be asking with genuine interest this time. Peter's eyes darted over to the window and he was shocked when he noticed that it was dark outside.

"Sure, Walter, why wouldn't I be?" Peter swung his feet out from under him and stood up a little too quickly. He involuntarily added "whoa" as his head swam. His father's hand on his shoulder seemed to stop the swirling sensation. "Thanks, Walter. Is it time for dinner?"

"Yes, ah, well. While you were sleeping, I did get hungry. Astronomy brought me some dinner from the cafeteria. It was delicious. I hope you don't mind." Walter licked his lips in memory of the corned beef sandwich he had enjoyed.

"Fine, fine. Let's go home." Peter grabbed the doorframe as another wave of vertigo passed over him. His balance restored itself and he followed his father out to the car. Peter had the strangest feeling that his father was withholding something. _Something big, something important_. He studied the older man's face. No worry seemed to cross it.

Peter's little nap didn't seem to have any bearing in how fast he would fall asleep again when his head hit the pillow. He fell instantly into a dream. _"Now, Peter, do what Daddy tells you. This won't hurt. Peter, Peter, pumpkin-eater. You'll be fine. Let Uncle Billy give you your medicine. After that, we'll get you a lollipop. Won't that be nice?" Walter's sing-song voice filled the darkness as he felt a sharp prick on his arm. "There. All better. See, that wasn't that bad, was it?" _

_He started to make a grab for the proffered lollipop in his father's hand but his hand started to shake. He felt a burn spreading through his arm and into his body. He felt it move into his head and set his brain on fire. "It burns!" _

Peter woke up, drenched in sweat, on the floor in the living room. He tried to open his eyes, but they were screwed shut against the pain. The pounding in his head was in time with his heartbeat. He didn't know how long he lay on the scratchy, worn carpet until Walter came.

Olivia sat up in her bed, glasses perched on the edge of her nose, reviewing the case file for the frozen man they found in the park. Several things were different from what she had _seen _in the lab, but the bulk of it was the same. She sighed and pulled her glasses off the rub the bridge of her nose. She glanced at the clock, 1:00 am. _Time to go to bed_, even if she didn't feel at all like sleeping.

Peter's words kept bouncing around in her head_. "If William Bell and my father were involved, you can be sure that there was an effect." Why did everything seem to keep coming back to Walter, William Bell, and Massive Dynamic?_ She had spoken with Nina Sharp and although the woman had provided some useful information, Olivia was sure that she was holding back even more_. Much more_.

Peter had mentioned the manifesto again. Maybe there was more there than she originally thought. _Maybe there were clues about who started the ZFT and what their actual endgame was. Did Walter know anything more about this or was he part of it? _Eventually she gave up and closed her eyes.

Her cell phone's shrill ring pulled her out of a very deep sleep. It took her a few seconds to even realize where she was. "Dunham."

"Olivia?" Walter's voice seemed far away and small, like a child's.

"Walter? Is everything okay?" Her breathing picked up awaiting his answer.

"Peter's in the hospital. He had a seizure." Her stomach sank.

"I'll be right there." She slammed her phone shut and she knocked her glasses to the floor in her haste to get dressed.

The drive to Massachusetts General was mercifully short as Olivia's attention was not fully on the road. All the possibilities of what was wrong with Peter flew through her mind. She left her car in the short-term parking near Emergency and ran through the double doors. She flashed her badge around and she was directed to a room in the Emergency department. As she approached, she could hear Walter's nervous chatter. Charlie and Astrid were already there.

She strode in with a purposefully flat expression in place. She saw Peter in the bed, attached to an IV line, cardiac monitor and a pulse-ox cuff on his finger. His eyes were closed, his face pale, and he looked younger somehow. "Walter? How is he?"

Walter just shook his head and continued to mutter to himself while pacing next to the bed. "He's been like that since they brought Peter in." Astrid stood next to Olivia and shared, like it was a secret. "He hasn't really been coherent since he called me."

"What happened?" At Olivia's question, Charlie walked over and directed the two women into the hall to talk.

"I got the call from Agent Farnsworth about an hour ago. Walter has called her after he called the ambulance. Peter was found unconscious on their living room floor, apparently he had a seizure. The doctors are not sure why or if there will be any long-term effects. They expect him to wake up within the next few hours. I met Walter and Peter as they arrived via ambulance and Agent Farnsworth was here already."

"I live only a few minutes away." Astrid said distractedly, watching the doctor who was leaving Peter's room.

"How's Peter?" Olivia stopped the doctor by putting a hand on his shoulder as he passed. "Agents Dunham, Farnsworth and Francis. FBI." She pointed to herself and the others as she made the introductions.

"Oh. I'm Dr. Graham. I didn't realize that this was a FBI matter." He looked down at his clipboard.

"Mr. Bishop is a consultant. How is he?" Olivia prompted again.

"He's holding his own. EKG and EEG are showing normal or near normal readings. I expect he will wake soon. I will be running a few more tests, MRI, tox screen, blood work, to make sure we don't have anything more systemic…" His beeper sounded. "Sorry, I have to go. I'll be back in a little while to check on him. He's stable for now."

"Why don't you two go and get some coffees? I'll stay here with Walter until Peter wakes up." Olivia made a pointed attempt to make her request light. She smiled at them as they left. What she wanted to discuss with Walter was for his ears alone.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10:**

Olivia sat down in a now vacant chair next to Peter. "Walter? Walter. Please sit down. Peter's going to be fine." Olivia grabbed the scientist's hands as he passed her. Walter stopped and searched her eyes.

"Will he? Oh, that's good. Good." He pulled away from her and plopped down in another chair near the window and looked outside at the half-frozen rain that was falling in the courtyard. The ice pellets were making a tip-tap sound against the window glass.

Olivia pushed down the irritation that had bubbled up. "Walter? What's going on? Why did Peter have a seizure?"

Walter didn't respond right away. Olivia sat quietly, listening to the rain and Peter's even breathing.

"Peter told you about _cortexiphan_, yes?" He waited for her to nod her head. "When Peter was a child, he and his mother spent a lot of time together. I worked a lot, so I didn't get to see them very much. One summer, I decided that Peter should spend some time with me at the lab so his mother could take a class at the college. Belly decided that Peter could be an excellent test subject because I could easily convince him to participate. Besides which Peter would be a control anyway. No harm there." Walter's eyes remained fixed on the rain falling outside. Olivia swallowed her revulsion at Walter's admission and let him continue.

"Peter received the injections, the same as you and the others, except that his contained saline only. That way, we would control only for the contents of the syringe, not the activity of being injected. Peter was a good sport until one day when he had a reaction. It was then that I realized that he wasn't receiving saline at all. I immediately sent him home to his mother, grateful that Peter didn't seem to have any memories of the time spent at the facility." Walter turned and looked at Olivia with an expression of remorse. She blinked in surprise. His face then relaxed. "I'm going to see if they have root beer in the cafeteria. I've always loved root beer." He shuffled out into the hall and was trailed by an FBI agent towards the cafeteria.

Olivia turned her attention back to the patient slumbering next to her. Every time she peeled back a layer of the onion, there were more there to pick at. She sighed and watched his chest rise and fall with every breath.

"Olivia? What happened? Why am I here?" Olivia blinked back to awareness, raising her head from the edge of the mattress where she seemed to have fallen asleep. Her arms were pins and needles as she straightened up. Light was filtering in through the window and laid a sliver on Peter's head and face.

"Peter, you're awake." She smiled until Peter pulled his hand out of hers.

"What happened?" Peter asked again, a little more urgently. "Where's Walter?" He started to pull all the monitors and leads off of his chest and head.

She placed her hands over his to stop his actions. "Peter, stop. You're in the hospital. You had a seizure. You're fine. Walter's here, he went to cafeteria for a drink."

"Ohhh-kay." He dragged it out like he didn't quite believe her. "You'd better start from the beginning." The creases in his forehead relaxed and he settled back into his pillow, obviously waiting for her response.

Olivia told him everything she knew starting from Walter's first phone call to Peter's waking up, but did leave out Walter's little disclosure. She wanted to speak to Walter about that in a _lot _more detail. She saw that Peter's attention was beginning to flag as she finished.

"I'll let you get some sleep. I'll stop back later today. I'm glad you're okay, you gave us quite a scare." She fought the urge to touch him, just to make sure that this was real and he was really all right.

"I'm glad you're glad. Sorry for snapping at you before. I don't know what came over me." He gave her the patented _Peter _smirk. "I'll try to stay conscious for more than five minutes when you come by later."

She smiled back and swept out of the room, her phone already dialed up to speak with Charlie. "Charlie, I'm on my way in. I need to speak with Broyles."

Walter sat at a cafeteria table sipping his root beer, lost in his thoughts. He almost had forgotten all about that summer. _What if something bad was happening to Peter as a result of his blind faith in his research partner? Peter had to be all right, he just had to be. _The bubbles from the soda tickled his nose and he giggled to himself. He wondered if they had any pie.

Peter closed his eyes and tried to fall back into the darkness, just so he didn't have to think about anything. No one could tell him why he had a seizure. He didn't want to think about it. He stayed because he was curious, not because he wanted to be part of it. The damn _Pattern_. Now all he wanted was to be normal again. And be blissfully ignorant of all of this. He had taken the red pill and nothing would ever put him back in the Matrix.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: **

**(A/N: Sorry for the delay, Work stuff. Don't worry, I'll make it up to you. Peter whump ahead…)**

Olivia's thoughts were all over the place as she scrunched down the backseat of the FBI-issued SUV that was currently bringing her back to the office. She'd get her car from the hospital parking lot later when she cam to visit Peter. Thankfully, the agent driving had the discretion to turn the heat up and not talk to her during their trip. She wouldn't have been able to carry a conversation anyway. She had hoped that Peter wasn't at all involved with those damned clinical trials because Walter had had the sense to keep his own son away from the insanity of William Bell.

_What the hell was she going to tell Broyles anyway?_ That she wanted to storm into Nina Sharp's office and shake her until she told her everything she knew about _cortexiphan_. She was tired of the secrets, half-truths, and conspiracies. She wanted to know what was going on and what Nina knew about the ZFT and their connection to the poor exploited children who were the test subjects. _ Including Peter and herself. _

Peter was busy counting the minutes until the shift change. He knew that the outgoing shift would meet with the incoming shift for the shift briefing and hand-off. He planned to leave during that time. He didn't need anymore needles, tests, or intrusive questions. _He. Was. Fine_. His head felt a little fuzzy still, but he was sure that it was all due to the crap they were pumping into him through the stupid IV. It felt like he had a spear driven into the crook of his arm. Why did the damn needle have to be so big? He hated injections and avoided medical testing like the plague. He even hated the _thought_ of a hospital. He had to get out.

The hand slipped past the twelve and he heard several people passing the hallway, talking loudly about plans for after work. _Finally. _He grimaced as he peeled the adhesive tape off of his IV site and then gingerly removed the needle from his arm. The IV control started beeping and he prompted pulled the plug out of the wall. He flung the twisted sheets and thin blanket off his legs and slowly raised himself to a sitting position. His head swam for a moment, but he quickly gained his balance. He turned and slowly slid down until his feet hit the cold floor. The stupid socks they gave him had anti-skid rubber on the bottom so at least he wouldn't fall on his ass the second he got up. He was breathing heavily and sweating at the effort and his heart rate sped up as he noticed that ten minutes had passed. The new nurse would be beginning her rounds soon. He managed to get vertical and shuffled over to the closet. He pulled the door open and grabbed his clothes. He made his way to the restroom to get dressed. He sat down on the closed lid of the toilet to catch his breath. _Holy hell! _ He was exhausted by the short trip. _How was he going to get out of here without being noticed? _In what he was sure was another ten minutes, he finally had on street clothes and was ready to make his escape. His thoughts wandered to Olivia and hoped she wouldn't be too mad at his escape. He knew she'd understand though.

As he stood up, the light bulb in the bathroom winked out with a small pop. He felt his way to the door and slipped out. He joined a group of people who were walking down the hall towards the exit doors. He would feel better after he was out of this place.

"Agent Dunham? Can I help you?" Broyles looked up from his desk as Olivia knocked lightly on the doorframe to his office.

"Uh, sir, do you have a minute?" She shifted her weight back and forth on the balls of her feet, suddenly very agitated.

"Of course, come in." He placed his pen on his desk and deliberately closed the notebook he had been writing in. "What can I do for you?" His smooth voice was like a balm to her frayed nerves, usually.

She swallowed down some of the anxiety that was currently coursing through her system and sat down. She made a conscious effort not to fidget. "Sir, I have reason to believe that the frozen man that we found in the park is connected to the Pattern. This is going to sound a little crazy…" She told the man all of her experiences with the visions of the frozen man in Walter's lab to Peter getting electrocuted and then it all not having happened to finding him again in the park, frozen, but in a different way. She left out the part about Peter and the drug trials. She wasn't sure how to characterize that yet. Broyles already knew she was involved somehow and she wanted to keep Peter out of this as long as possible. _Hell, Peter didn't even know he was involved yet. _Per standard, Broyles showed no reaction to her story. She half-thought that one of these days he would burst out laughing, throw her out of the FBI and into the crazy house. "Would it be possible for you to ask Nina if she had ever heard of this man? If he had any connection to Massive Dynamic?" She stood up to leave and swayed a little on her feet.

"I can do that." He looked at her a little closer. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, why?" She tried to blink the sudden blurriness out of her eyes.

"You're sweating. Maybe you should sit down."


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: **

**(A/N: To those who are anxiously awaiting a little Bolivia, don't worry, it's coming soon. Patience…)**

Peter staggered out into the parking lot, grateful that it was fairly empty. He probably looked even worse than he felt, which wasn't saying much. He felt like absolute bloody hell. Almost as bad as the time in Afghanistan when he tried to make a deal with that Taliban leader…

"Peter?"

"Huh?" He staggered and ended up half-leaning against a silver SUV. He blinked in confusion. "Olivia? How did you…?"

"Find you? Not too hard. You're hardly as stealthy as you think. C'mon, let me give you a hand." Her hair tickled his face as she attempted to pull him upright.

"Uhh, okay." He feigned nonchalance as she practically dragged him to her car. "How about a drink?" He tried to smile, but he was afraid that it only came off as a sneer.

"No drinks for you. Home. To bed." She leaned over him to secure his seatbelt. He could feel body heat radiating off her, almost as if she were touching him. He couldn't persuade his arms to move, so he ended up just sitting there like a lump. He mentally berated himself for a lost opportunity…opportunity for what, he wasn't quite sure. His thoughts were swimming around in his head a little looser than he would normally like and he hoped to hell that he wouldn't say anything that he would regret.

"…did you hear me? Why did you leave? You're obviously in no shape to be wandering around." She asked in her FBI voice. _No nonsense._ Hell, even when she used the serious voice, it gave him a little jolt. _Bloody hell, shut up! _

It took all of his energy to just sit there and keep his mouth shut. He was eternally grateful that she didn't cart him right back to the damned hospital. Whatever the hell had happened to him wasn't going to be cured in that hospital. He didn't remember much more of the trip back to his hotel suite. He didn't remember being dragged into his room and laid down in his bed. All he could remember was the buzzing in his head, the disorientation, and the feeling like he had forgotten to do something really, really important.

He had a really strange dream where he was in a room with a man who looked really familiar and was waving a needle at him. Peter tried frantically to leave, but found he couldn't move or scream. He thought his father was there, but no one stopped the bad man from killing him with the needle. He finally could move and he screamed.

Olivia was in the bedroom like a shot at Peter's scream. The sound of it cut right into her chest, momentarily stopping her breathing. Peter looked at her and fairly wilted as she approached. His skin was pale and sweaty and he was shaking. "Are you okay?" The words sounded stupid even as she said them, because obviously, he was _anything_ but okay.

"I'm not sure." His voice was shaky and quiet, like a scared child. Then, he straightened up. "Liv, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I'm fine, just a bad dream." He looked around like he didn't expect to be in his own bed. "Where's Walter?" He shifted again, but didn't remove his hand from hers.

She looked down and realized that she didn't remember even taking his hand. She sat down next to him. "He's fine. Astrid has him. He didn't want to be alone and of course, didn't think that you'd be out of the hospital so soon." She stopped rubbing his hand. _When had she started doing that?_

He leaned back against the pillows. _God, his head hurt so bad_. "Aspirin?" She nodded and handed him a couple of pills and a glass of water. "Thanks." He told her as he handed her back the now empty glass. "Hate hospitals."

"What?" She whispered to him. Her grip of his hand was loosening. Her awareness was starting to drift towards sleep. She could feel the pull of it, the heaviness of her head, the slowness of her thoughts.

"Always hated hospitals. Trying to stick needles in your arm the size of spears…" The light behind his closing eyes went dark and he slid into unconsciousness without another word.

Walter held the ZFT book to his chest in the hope that what was contained within it wasn't actually out in the world; but even in his imagination, he knew it wasn't true. The lone light shone over the head of the bed where he lay semi-reclined in Astralene's guest room. The book felt heavy against his chest and he wished to hell that he could actually resist reading the damned thing. That knowledge changed his son, had changed Agent Dunham and many others. Had changed him. He had managed to forget when he was in the hospital all those years, but now, it was begging to be revealed again. He squeezed his eyes shut against the sudden onslaught of unbidden tears. _His son. _His everything and he let him be_ changed._


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13:**

**(A/N: Thanks to all for your patience. Feedback graciously welcomed and most appreciated!!!)**

Peter woke again with what must be the worst hangover he'd ever managed to have in his life. He pulled himself very slowly to a sitting position all in an effort not to barf all over the sleeping form of Olivia. He resisted the urge to run his hand over her smooth hair. She lay bent over the edge of the bed, her head lying on her crossed arms, with the remainder of her body crunched up on the floor. She looked angelic sleeping there; no worry lines creased her forehead in sleep. She couldn't possible be comfortable like that though, so against his earlier thoughts, he placed a hand on her head to wake her gently.

_What happened next was hardly gentle._

Walter woke with a start and practically dumped the whole book on the floor in his momentary disorientation. He was starting to put together the pieces of the information contained in the book's ramblings, his own incoherent thoughts, and distant vague memories that were swimming just outside of his reach. ZFT was put together by his old research partner William Bell and was related to the experiments that Bell had conducted when Peter was a child. Olivia was also part of the experimental group with drastic results that were just now coming to light. _What were he and Bell thinking that they could do better than nature? Playing God was a good idea?_ Years ago, he thought that if something could be done, it should be done, at least in the name of science. _Be able to learn something new, understand some universal constant not yet even acknowledged by man. Dangers lurked there. Creating problems that they had no chance of solving, no chance of even fully perceiving. _

Peter wasn't sure what was happening at first. He couldn't move, couldn't speak, and was only aware of the short bursts of…_what?_.._.memories?_...that he was forced to work through. The lab that his dad would take him to all that summer. That summer that he could barely remember. The summer before Walter claimed that Peter became ill. He didn't recall being sick any more than regular stuff when he was a kid, a cold, the flu, chicken pox. He strained to remember details. He remembered actually being _afraid_ of Uncle Belly. That was strange. He was his father's oldest friend and colleague. _ He would never do anything to hurt… Was he going to use that needle on him? _Burning fire raced through his veins and into his brain. He couldn't scream or move. He was trapped inside a burning building and no one did anything to help him.

He was aware of someone screaming in his ear next and then the abrupt silence when it stopped. Olivia stared at him with wide eyes. "What? What happened?" He croaked out. Why was his throat so scratchy?

"Peter, _god_, are you okay?" Her hand was shaking as she touched his face. He rubbed the blurriness out of his eyes and blinked owlishly at her, stunned at not having any idea of what had just occurred.

He waited a moment to gather his far-flung thoughts and breathed into his own hands as he rubbed his face. Her eyes remained wide, her head tilted expectantly. "I'm not sure. Whatever that was, I don't think it's good. Are you okay?"

"Yeah." She straightened up and pulled her hand away, as if she just realized how close she was to him. "You were screaming." She said quietly, almost as if she were only speaking to herself.

"I got that. Why?" He leaned back, now appreciating the pounding in his brain that was keeping in time with his heartbeat.

"You don't know?"

"Nothing happened. Nothing happened that summer…" He grumbled, a little surprised when that nugget bubbled out of his mouth.

"What summer?"

Walter puttered around the lab while Astrid entered some data into the computer. He felt aimless, powerless, and fearful that Peter would never forgive him. How could he have known what had happened? Indescribable guilt washed over him after he thought about all those children whom he did know about and had done nothing. _ "__Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall"_ as the famous essayist Joseph Addison wrote. No one had deserved it more than them. While he was seemingly tinkering on some equipment, his mind was on other things. Like how to figure out what was done and what would happen. His eyes trailed to the Tank. It was the way that Olivia had been able to find closure around her partner's death. Maybe he would be able to help Peter find closure around something that he didn't even remember. Of course, that could only happen if he could convince Peter to get in.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14:**

**(Thanks again for your continued patience and your extremely kind words. I love hearing from everyone!)**

"No, no,_ hell_ no!" Peter's negative answer to his father's request echoed through the lab so that even Gene quieted at the noise. "I will not, nor will I ever, get into that torture device. I do not see how that could possibly help me." He looked over at Olivia for support and she looked at her shoes. She had spent more time in the tank than anyone else whom Walter could remember. She was hardly the person to counsel against such an action.

"Son, it could help you to resolve some the…symptoms you've been having. It will help to normalize the chemical balance in your brain…."

"I don't care if it solved world hunger; I am_ not _getting into that death trap!" A red flush was slowly creeping up his neck and was now turning the tops of his ears red with the effort.

"Peter, stop getting so worked up. It was just an idea of something to try, right, Walter?" Olivia put her arm around his shoulders and guided Peter to a seated position on a nearby lab bench.

Walter had the distinct impression that something was going on between the two of them that he had definitely missed. He dismissed it as Olivia walked away to take a cell phone call. Peter's haggard appearance and lack of energy despite the one outburst was decidedly not Peter-like. Walter would have to think of something else, something that Peter would have no choice but to accept.

Astrid kept quiet as she observed the dynamics of the group. She knew that Peter looked like hell and both Olivia and Walter were very worried about him. Peter was scrambling to make sense of things and gain some semblance of control. She continued to mentally catalogue her observations per usual, maybe they would be needed later. Astrid brewed a cup of tea for Peter, she thought he would have appreciated something stronger, but it was the best thing she could think of as a pick-me-up. It didn't feel like much as Peter gave her a weak smile when she handed over the steaming beverage.

Peter was struggling to stay upright and give the appearance of being alive. His head felt like it was being split open an inch at a time and he couldn't believe that no one else could feel it. He bit his tongue to keep from groaning. He glanced at the cup before he blew on it to cool the liquid and noticed the steam was curling up very slowly from the surface. His ears felt stuffed and all the sounds around him became muffled. His arms and legs became leaden as if he were becoming a statue. _What now?_

Olivia was just about to hang up the phone when a flush of nausea washed over her. She stopped and waited. A headache flushed into her head and she turned to look back into the lab. Peter seemed to staring off into space and about to fall off his chair. She pushed her phone into her pocket and ran back into the lab. "Peter!"

Time seemed to slow as Peter watched the steam tendril curl ever so slowly up into the air. The people around him were moving so slowly and now everything sounded as if he were underwater. He felt no panic as the light in the room began to dim and he was only slightly aware that he was losing his battle with gravity. He could no longer hold the mug and it crashed to the floor only seconds before he joined it.

He felt warm, surrounded, and comfortable like he had just woken up from a long nap under a quilt on a cold winter afternoon. He struggled to remember how he got there, but gave up when it just wouldn't come. _"Pe-ter. Pe-ter." _ He heard his name being called in a sing-song voice like his mother used to use. _"Mom?"_

"No, Peter, it's me, Olivia. Can you hear me?" She was in this comfortable darkness with him, where he couldn't tell, and he really couldn't bring himself to care very much. He just felt too good to give a shit about anything. He felt something behind him, but he wasn't sure what. He just didn't care to find out.

Olivia had convinced Walter to let her bring Peter into the tank while he was unconscious in the hopes of bringing him back before he figure out what happened. Walter had concocted a "splitter" for the neural interface that allowed for the two of them to be connected to Walter's device. He was very excited when she had suggested it. "What a wonderful solution, Olivia! This is really the best thing for him, you know." She sure as hell hoped so. Peter would be supremely pissed when he woke up and realized that they put him in the tank without his permission, but by then, he would feel a whole lot better. _ It'd always helped her._ She had slipped into the tank and helped Walter and Astrid pace Walter in her arms to make sure that he didn't drown during his session.

"Don't think I don't know what you did." Olivia turned around and found herself sitting at a table in a diner. Peter was sitting across from her and looked at her accusingly.

"What do you think you know about what I did?" Olivia said lightly back.

"Don't play games with me. Why are we here?" Peter's hard expression did not lighten.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15: (A/N: Again, most sincere apologies for the delay in posting. It's short, but important. Your patience is much, much appreciated, as is your feedback! )**

Olivia swallowed slowly in an effort to delay answering Peter. She looked around and noticed that the diner looked slightly familiar. It reminded her of the one where she and John saw each other in one of her "trips" into the tank. She sincerely hoped that this visit was Peter's and not hers. She was only there to help him, not work on her own subconscious.

"I'm here for you." She looked directly in his eyes and hoped her sincerity showed through.

"Did I misspeak when I distinctly said, "_Do not put me in the tank_"?" Peter's face was devoid of any emotion, but his eyes flashed with rage.

"No, Peter, we understood what you said, but your father said that this would help you. And I believed him." She purposely kept her voice level; it wouldn't take much to set Peter off.

"So, just so I understand, you followed the ravings of an admitted looney over my own?"

"If you choose to look at it that way, I guess so. What do you want to do about it?" She raised herself up and leaned over the table, hands planted firmly on the cool tabletop. She had try to keep Peter focused on the objective.

"Oh, so _now_ you care about my opinion? I want out of this," he waved his hands in front of him, "place. Whatever the hell this is. _Funtime with Walter_ will not solve anything."

Olivia grabbed his hands and held them tightly. "Peter, trust me. _This_ will help." She pulled him from his seat. "Let's look around. There has to be something we can work with here."

"Why do you insist on playing into his delusions? You're not helping him or me. Oh, I know, in Walter's twisted way, he is trying to help. He just never seems to do it without destroying the people he's trying to help." Peter looked up and noticed that they were now walking down a street in a nice, older suburban neighborhood.

"Huh." Peter stated and stopped walking.

"What?" Olivia turned her head to watch him standing stock still on the sidewalk next to a mailbox.

"This is my house. It looks like it did when I was a kid."

"That's Jeremy's house, the one with the black shutters. I used to play stick ball with him all the time. My school's only a few blocks down that way." He pointed towards the west and the now setting sun. "It feels late. C'mon, let's see if we can go in." He turned towards his house and began to walk up the sidewalk, Olivia in tow. She noticed how his eyes lit up as he was talking about his childhood. She wondered where Walter had been during most of this time.

Walter was wringing his hands while watching the EKG and EEG monitors of his two patients. Astrid put her hand on his shoulder. "They'll be fine. They always are."

"Yes, yes, you're right, of course. I'll monitor them closely and make sure that we pull them out at the appropriate time." His mind flew to the passage in the ZFT book that he always went to when he was alone.

"_To keep the soldiers moving towards a singular purpose, there will need to be a_

_centerpoint. The hub of the wheel that will connect all. He will not be a soldier, but a_

_sentinel to maintain order. Without the sentinel, control will be impossible._

_Without the soldier, the sentinel will have no purpose. Activation must be achieved or_

_failure will be imminent."_

A cold sweat broke out on Walter's brow as realization washed over him. Peter was the_ sentinel_ and Olivia was a _soldier_. What have they done?


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16:**

**(A/N: Happy (belated) New Year, everyone!! Yes, I know it's been almost two months since the last post, but I needed another couple shots of Fringe to get me through. As always, feedback is welcome and appreciated.)**

Peter reached out to the front door and tried to turn it. He frowned slightly, jiggled it one more time and then stepped back. "Hmm, I think there's...," he turned the knob hard to the right and then just as sharply to the left, "... a method." His face split into a grin as the door swung open. He stepped in, not quite sure what to expect. _This wasn't real_, he knew that, but damn it, it was pretty convincing. The house was dark and smelled slightly of a meal past- a kind of bready, warm smell. He wasn't sure how else to characterize it or what he expected it to smell like, but it was absolutely dead on from what he remembered as a kid. He bumped on the light switch with his elbow without even thinking. His mother and he had been only in this house a few years, but they were good ones.

Olivia smiled at Peter's obviously elevated mood. She couldn't remember the last time Peter smiled that genuinely. "We should have done this sooner. You should try to smile more." She punched him lightly in the shoulder as she passed him, trying to take in the environment.

"So, how does this work anyway?" His serious face was back in place. Her face fell as she realized that there _was_ a point to this and they weren't going to figure it out by random wandering.

"For me, there was something that John needed to tell me. Something I needed to know, to figure out for myself. Not everything is literal. This is all you. I don't know the history of this house or who you were when you were here. I follow you." She tried for a reassuring smile. "So, why don't you give me the tour?"

"After you, m'lady." She hooked her arm into his and let him lead her into the next room. They made their way upstairs and into the hallway leading to the bedrooms. "My mom's room is on the left, sorry, _was_ on the left. Mine's up this way."

Olivia didn't bother correcting him or reminding him that this was an illusion, a replay of his own memories. There was no point and it was really too easy to forget. She just hoped Peter could figure out what was disturbing him so they could get back to the case. She looked back up from her musings and realized that Peter wasn't in front of her anymore. "Peter?" The hallway lights went dark and she crashed into the wall as she was shoved aside by…something. "Peter! Where are you?"

Walter paced nervously as Astrid monitored the patients' readouts. What had he done? Did he make this whole situation better, as he originally prophesized, or did he just set off the next stage? He chewed his lip as he desperately willed the answer to pop into his overwrought brain. He left Astrid to keep an eye on them while he wandered as casually as he could towards the office and the Book. He just needed to find that passage he knew could save his son.

Olivia pushed herself up to a sitting position, back against the wall of the narrow upstairs hallway. A pale light filtered through the window at the end of the hall, barely letting her make out the shapes of the doorways. All the doors seemed to be closed and the quiet in the house thoroughly gave her the creeps. Her hand automatically went to her gun and she was disappointed when she found nothing. _How do you defend yourself in someone else's psyche? _

Peter didn't realize that Olivia was no longer behind him for several seconds after he stopped to look at all the stuff in his old room. The light was fading as the sun set behind the hills and only a few strains of light peeked through the partially closed curtains. He reached for the lamp switch at his desk lamp and only succeeded in knocking over a pile of papers onto the floor. He groped around and managed to turn on the small lamp, whose light barely illuminated the desk top. He pushed the papers that had fallen into a neatish pile, but left them on the floor. This wasn't his real room and he suddenly didn't feel the need to pick up after himself. He sat down at his desk and pulled open the top middle drawer, usually reserved for pencils and paperclips. But he knew there was more here than met the eye. He pulled the drawer out as far as it would come and then he jerked it off its tracks. He turned the drawer over and was mildly surprised to find his diary still taped to the bottom. It wasn't a traditional diary, but was one of his father's lab notebooks that Walter had had the habit of leaving everywhere. It was thin and so could be tucked on the bottom of the drawer without affecting the motion. Peter opened the notebook slowly, not sure if time would have made the pages brittle. He had forgotten that Walter had actually used the notebook for awhile and his father's scrawl started up on the first page. "Subject A shows distinct reaction to the proximity of Subject B, but not to Subject X. Subject X was not part of Subject A's original test cohort…" More of the writing and something that had probably resembled a chart was smeared into unintelligible characters when he had dumped a glass of water over it years ago. He smiled as he ran his fingers over the writing. He had felt so proud as he put his own thoughts into the notebook just as his father had. He flipped through the remainder of his cherished journal, but found only childish ramblings. He glanced out the window and realized that it was well and truly dark now and probably should see what Olivia had gotten up to. His hand went to the doorknob and turned. Nothing happened. He jiggled it again. No luck. He pounded on the door. "Olivia! Can you hear me?"


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17:**

**(A/N: Amazing! Two updates in so many weeks! Aren't you lucky? Of course, more reviews may help this miraculous trend continue… Seriously, thanks to all who have continued to follow our intrepid explorers of the weird and impossible.)**

Peter stopped for a moment and listened. _Nothing_. He couldn't even hear his own breathing. _What the hell does that matter? This wasn't real and didn't have to follow the real world rules, right? Was he even breathing anyway? Why couldn't he control this better? Wasn't this inside his own head? _He stopped and stared hard at the door and willed it to open. _ Nothing. Okay. _He screwed his eyes shut and really tried to open the damned door.He opened his eyes slowly, really hoping that the door would be open and he and Olivia could get the hell out of Dodge. This place, this whole…_experience _was a ridiculous waste of time. The door remained stubbornly closed.

Olivia grabbed an empty vase off of a side table in the hallway, grateful for some small protection it may offer and held it at the ready. She would have preferred something a little more effective, but, whatever. The task at hand was to locate a missing kind-of-basket case who was depending on her to help him. _Help? _All she did was bring him back to his childhood home and promptly lose him. Some help she was turning out to be. Why did she suddenly feel like she was missing something important? Her eyes caught nothing but her dim reflection in the mirror hanging between the two bedrooms doorways.

Peter rammed his shoulder into the door for the third time, sure that he had dislocated his arm by now. He rubbed it absently as he sat back on his bed to rest and regroup. So he couldn't leave this room by the normal means. Maybe he would need to try something _ab_normal. His eyes trailed over to the window. He had escaped through that portal a few times before he had broken his ankle falling out of the tree, whose branches came close enough to the glass for ten-year old arms to reach. He walked over to the window and tried the catch. It slipped open easily. He grabbed the notebook, folded it in half, and tucked into his back pocket. Maybe Olivia would appreciate the markings of his young genius. He smiled as he pushed the window all the way up and reached out to grab onto the sturdy branch.

Olivia heard a huge crash and she ran to the window in time to see a figure plummet to the ground on the front lawn. _Peter!_ She pitched the vase away as she took off for the front door. She threw open the door and ran outside. She found herself standing outside the lab at Harvard University's campus. Peter was sitting on the steps to the building, engrossed in a notebook of some kind. "Peter? Are you okay?"

"Sure, Livvy. Any reason why I wouldn't be?" He didn't look up as he answered her. His tone seemed to tell her that she was asking a stupid question.

"Uh, we were just at your house and you fell out of a tree." She told him and she sat down next to him, the cold from the stone seeping through her pants.

"What are you talking about?" He looked at her like she had grown another head. "What house? Oh,...that happened when I was a kid." His voice was quiet, distracted. "I haven't seen that house in twenty years. Did Walter tell you that?"

_Nothing is as it seems_. "How did you get here?" She decided to try a different tack.

"I drove in with Walter a little while ago. He had an idea about the Iceman that he wanted to test out."

Olivia blinked. _The iceman…the man from the park? _ "Peter, what's the last thing you remember?"

"Hmm, let's see. You walked over here, asked me strange questions and looked at me with your FBI stare. Why? What's up?" His expression was one of innocence. "Hey, let me show you something I found."

Walter closed the book, sure of what he had to do next. He strode out into the lab, closing the door to the office behind him. He had put the book back in its hidden place, where no one would find it accidentally. Even Peter didn't know where it was now. "Astrid, it's time to take them out."

Astrid was already at the door of the tank, just starting to open it. She blinked at Walter for moment, actually surprised that he used or even knew her given name. "Olivia regained consciousness on her own. I don't know about Peter." She pulled the door open all the way and reached in the help Olivia out from under Peter. He still seemed unresponsive. Olivia pulled out the interface as Walter injected Peter with adrenaline. Peter spluttered in the cooling water and squinted his eyes at the sudden brightness of the room.

Peter seemed to go from groggy to outraged as he suddenly realized that he was standing in his underwear, dripping on the floor in front of Olivia and two other fully dressed adults. "May I help you?" Peter asked his father sarcastically as Walter made a grab to help Peter to the office to change. He tried really hard not to notice Olivia's equally wet underclothes.

Ten minutes later, warm, and now fully clothed, Peter closed his hands around a mug of coffee. He raised it to Astrid who smiled back as she finished shutting down the tank's analysis equipment. Olivia came out of the office dressed in a pair of well-worn jeans and a heather gray sweater. Peter smiled at her as well. Her still damp hair hung in a braid down her back and he couldn't help but consider that she looked good in her non-FBI clothes.

"How do you feel, Peter?" Walter walked up to his son and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Amazingly good. I don't say I told you so. And just for the record, I did not agree to the tank. What the hell was it supposed to do anyway? All I managed to do was get wet and hang around with Olivia in my underwear." He smirked and looked in her direction.

"Do you mean you don't remember anything?" Olivia was incredulous.

"Remember what?"


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18:**

**(A/N: Idea for a drinking game, every time I mention coffee, take a shot of your espresso!)**

Olivia was beginning to feel as if she were alone in all of this…insanity. Peter had changed his clothes and was sitting at the bench clutching the coffee cup like he had just got back from shoveling the driveway or something _normal_. Walter was tinkering with some piece of equipment and Astrid was on the phone while looking up something on the computer. She shook her head in exasperation mostly to herself. Was this some kind of test or a dream that she would wake up from? No one else seemed concerned that Peter had forgotten everything that had happened in the tank and now seemed fine. While it was good that he _was_ fine now, but she knew more than anyone that nothing good happened to them without some sort of negative offset. The other shoe would drop.

"Olivia, no more negative thoughts. I'm fine, really. Nothing bad's gonna happen. I won't let it." His trademark smirk was back, his cocky attitude. Olivia grinned back before she even realized what she was doing. _Wait, what?_

"C'mon, you're like reading a book. I can hear everything in your head just by looking at you." Peter smiled again. "No, not really. I think we know each other pretty well by now with all that we've been through." He sipped his coffee again. "I know you think all this is screwed up. It probably is, we probably are. But at least, we're in this together."

"Wow, Bishop, you're a regular Hallmark card. One trip in the tank and you're a ray of sunshine." She punched him lightly in the arm. "I should get to the office and brief Broyles. Seriously, Peter, I'm glad you're feeling better. I'll check in on you later." She touched his arm again for the briefest second, nodded at Astrid and made her way out of the lab and into the frigid night air.

Peter smiled again to himself and finished the coffee. Night had fallen and the windows looking up to the street were black holes. The lights in the lab had taken on a harsh, cold tone. He suddenly felt like he needed to go home and get out of this place. "Walter, we're going. Astrid, go home. It's getting late." He grabbed his jacket and shrugged into it while attempting to wrap his scarf around his neck. His elbow caught the empty coffee cup and sent it to the floor, shattering on the linoleum tile.

Olivia's head snapped to the right as she drove through the green light, sure something had caught her attention. She shifted her eyes back to the road, _great, now she was hallucinating_. She was tired. Maybe she needed to go home and get some sleep. At the next intersection, she turned around and headed to her apartment instead. She'll leave Broyles a voicemail when she got home. All she wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep for a week.

An hour later, she slid into her bed and sighed in pleasure. Her face freshly scrubbed, her teeth brushed. She had even picked out her outfit for the next day. Her eyes fell closed and she was dead to the world.

Walter laid a blanket over his son, who had passed out, shoes and clothes on, on the top of his bedspread. He gently pulled his son's shoes off and placed them next to the bed. He gingerly swung Peter's legs onto the bed from their previously hanging over the side position. Surely it was a rare occurrence that Peter would allow Walter to take care of him. Of course, Peter was unconscious and wouldn't know what Walter did to help him be more comfortable. Walter smiled to himself, _he didn't care_.

Olivia's eyes blinked open at the beam of sunshine that had peeked through her curtains. _Hell_, she had forgotten to set her alarm. She looked at her clock, saw it was after 9:00 am already. She was late already, what would be the difference if she were later? She smushed her face into her pillow and vowed to check in with Broyles by noon. A minute later, the sounds of gentle snores filled her bedroom.

Walter carried a cup of coffee to Peter's room, knowing that only the aroma of a nice, woodsy Sumatra blend would rouse him. The light from the hallway spilled across the bed to find Peter in the exact place and pose that Walter had left him almost 10 hours previous.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19: **

**(A/N: I know it's been a long time. Thanks for your continued patronage and patience, both are much appreciated! Can't wait for the premiere this week! Yay!) **

Olivia brushed her hair into her hand as she prepared to pull into her usual ponytail and stopped. Why did she always prepare herself the same way, the same clothes, the same clean face, no make-up? Her work uniform, her sister had called it._ Screw it. _She left her hair down and pulled on her usual black blazer over her blue button-down oxford shirt.

Broyles had accepted her request for a meeting at 2 pm. She heard the elevator ping and rushed out the front door to make it to the elevator before the doors shut. It closed seconds before her hand shot out to stop the doors from closing all the way. _Damn, there was no point in waiting._ A flush of annoyance washed over her as she made her way to the stairwell while shoving her arm into her overcoat. She pulled her hair out of the back of the coat as she opened the fire door to the stairwell. She was already dialing the Bishops before she made it to the landing of the third floor.

A cold sweat popped out of her collar when she closed her phone after leaving a second voicemail for Peter. _Where were they?_ She was about to call Astrid when she saw Peter waiting in the lobby of her building, smile on his face, holding a cup of coffee out towards her.

"I called you. Didn't you get my messages?" She snapped, her anxiety peeking through her voice. She regretted how the words sounded as soon as they left her mouth.

"Good afternoon to you, too, Olivia." He tipped a pretend hat towards her. "I thought you may need this before you meet up with Broyles." He handed her the cup. She tilted her head as if she had heard a strange sound. "Astrid told me, before you get all squinty. I figured I should come when you brief Broyles. I was there, too, you know. Let him see for himself that I'm ole' Peter. A-okay." His tone seemed to imply that he was hurt that she hadn't thought to include him in her meeting.

"I know, Peter. And, thanks." She held up the cup as Peter held the door open for her. "I would have killed for a little caffeine. Anyway, I didn't ask you because you said that you didn't remember anything. I wanted to save you a trip." She took a sip. "Where's Walter?"

"He's at the lab with Astrid. He insists that there was data from our 'trip' to analyze. Walter seems to think that Broyles doesn't like him or something. Funny, huh?"

"Yeah, funny." Funny that she had the same impression.

Peter seemed to be about a half step ahead of her, literally and figuratively. She brushed it off as paranoia as they stepped off the elevator to meet Broyles in his office. Everyone seemed to stare at her as they passed through the bullpen, like she had grown an extra head or something.

She dropped her empty coffee cup into the trash next her desk as her eyes swept over its surface, noting any differences. The message light on her phone seemed to blink with an extra urgency. Her finger reached for it as she felt Peter's pull to follow him into the office. That urgency was palpable. _Why was he so eager to speak with Broyles?_ She thought Peter had a level of respect for her supervisor, but also a level of wariness from operating below the law prior to his joining the team. _Didn't matter now. Just needed to make the report before…before something else went to hell and took them with it. _

"Agent Dunham, Mr. Bishop." Broyles greeted them in his usual formality. Olivia was used to it by now. She nodded at his invitation. She used to think that he did it to seem superior. "What can you tell me?"

"As you know, we took Peter into the tank, per Dr. Bishop's advisement, to see if it would help him. He was suffering from some kind of seizures…" Olivia began, looking at Peter for his agreement.

"And we had to pull her out, she was still unconscious. Walter had to give her a shot of adrenaline to bring her back to awareness. Isn't that right, Olivia?" Peter looked at Olivia, expectantly. She blinked, trying to absorb what she had just heard.

"What are you talking about? That's not what happened." Olivia stood up and looked at the two men, who now were looking at her like she had announced that she was the Queen of England.

"Agent Dunham, perhaps you should clarify." Broyles' tone and eyes bore into her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. I misheard. Please continue." At their faces, she immediately decided to keep the cold feeling that had just settled into her stomach to herself. _Was she now alone in this?_ The _time skip_ left her desperately trying to recall what was said between her introduction and Peter's conclusion. She couldn't.

Questions swirled around in her head in the drive back to the lab. She wanted to talk to Walter, alone, about this recent occurrence, but was strangely reluctant. If anyone would believe her, it was Walter. The ball of ice that had settled in her stomach stayed staunchly in place. She schooled her features in an effort not to alarm Peter, who was famously able to read even her most stoic expressions. Any annoying habit of his.

"Walter?"

"Yes, Olivia?" Walter looked up as she walked up next to him.

"Can I talk to you? Privately?"

"Of…of course. This way." He led her into the office in the back of the lab. "Is there anything wrong?"

"Nothing wrong, _per se_. Just something weird. Walter, what happened when Peter and I were taken out of the tank?"

"Well, Peter woke on his own and we needed to arouse you with some adrenaline. Are you having heart palpitations? Feeling dizzy?" His eyes scrunched up in worry as he reached out to take her pulse from her wrist.

"No, nothing like that." She pulled her arm away from his hand gently. "I just…remember the events differently."

"How so?"

She described her version of the events and how the events were described by Peter in Broyles' office earlier. "What do you think?"

"Interesting. Has this happened before?"

"Yes."


End file.
